Dreams in Crimson
by NoelleWynters
Summary: It would seem Cyrus is still having nightmares, much to Rumpel's surprise and confusion. But are these really nightmares, or are these visions of crimson and darkness something yet to come as they prepare for a new adventure?


_Standard disclaimer applies: I own nothing, this is all for fun._

_It takes forever to type it out, the series this comes into is in my profile along with all the stories that come before it._

Evil always seemed to lurk in the darkness, and it never slept. Or so that is what Belle had heard. Being so close to Rumpel she fancied that could be true, even though he was more of a man than the Dark One these days, she had observed since the curse had been broken he spent a good deal of the nights rambling about the house, or reading a book whilst he sipped on a cup of tea.

Not that she wasn't slightly amused at the thought running through her mind, seeing as she was very awake at two in the morning. In her own defense, she thought she'd heard a noise. Normally she would sleep right through the night, but on this one she could have sworn she'd heard something.

She knew Cyrus was prone to nightmares, but since Christmas he'd not had one due to that charm Rumpel had made for him. He rarely let it out of his sight, which had drawn some comments from people if they were visiting late into the evening. He was very discreet about it, but it was more than obvious that he hated to be without the charm.

If any of their guests made the mistake of making a remark about it, more on the lines of it seemed silly over offering to help locate it, they quickly retracted the sentiment after a look from Rumpel. If looks could kill, his likely would, and could if he was so inclined Belle was sure.

Belle hated when people spoke like that, she'd dealt with nightmares before so she knew how terrifying they could be. At times a nightmare could be a soul wrenching thing, and when you woke from them it was hard to discern reality from what was playing out in your mind. They all were very strong people, with everything they'd gone through, but when you're asleep you can't do battle with the demons that haunt your dreams. It was in those moments between a deep sleep and waking that one could not defend themselves from the evils that lurked within the depths of the mind. She'd dealt with enough of those sorts of dreams, she knew it was not easy and she'd have given almost anything to ward off the nightmares.

She'd been 28 years imprisoned without any idea why, or who she was, thanks to Regina. And if that wasn't enough, there was the time in the Enchanted Forest. She'd tried to keep track for awhile, but soon gave up. She was certain it wasn't much over a year or two, but it was still time she would never get back. Either way, all that time alone allowed her mind to wander, and her nightmares normally were filled with soul crushing loneliness, the fear of being locked up and never seeing another living being again. It was terrifying.

Belle was about to return to bed when Rumpel suddenly walked out of his room. She jumped slightly at his sudden appearance, as she'd not expected to see him. Despite her thoughts on evil never sleeping, she'd never truly seen him as evil in the least. Misguided maybe, but not evil. They'd met true evil, and in a way she figured they had the origin of one type of evil living under their roof, but at least it was locked inside him, and although Rumpel possessed the dagger it had been put into, it was diluted. She knew, despite everything, Rumpel had his moments he wondered if he could do what Jafar could not: control the dark magic within Cyrus for his own use without hurting the genie. Belle knew he entertained the thought, but was assured he'd never put it to practice.

"What is it?" she inquired, although she'd already guess.

Rumpel glanced over before motioning for her to follow him down the hall. "Cyrus is having a nightmare, and I'd rather rouse him from it before he wakes Alice and Bae with his cries."

Belle followed, concern written on her face. She hated to think of anyone suffering, be it from a physical wound or something of their mind. She knew Cyrus was nearly impossible to hurt, without the use of silver, but in his sleeping mind there was no telling what damaging events he was reliving.

Rumpel opened the door to the genie's room, and the light from the hall spilled in and illuminated Cyrus. He was lying in bed, his facial features betraying some sleeping fear and he was crying out softly.

Belle slipped past him and went over to sit on the side of the bed. She reached out and gently shook Cyrus by the shoulder, hoping that would be enough to wake him. It seemed he wasn't too deep into whatever was plaguing his mind, so hopefully he wouldn't be difficult to rouse.

Cyrus felt consciousness suddenly washing over him, and he'd not been so happy to be woken up in quite awhile. He could feel someone touching his shoulder, and soft voices talking as he slowly found his way from the frightening images that haunted his sleep. The voices were familiar, they meant safety and he was relieved to hear them as this time the visions he saw were almost too real to distinguish from reality or imagined visions playing with his sleeping mind.

He opened his eyes, and as his vision adjusted to the lamp light in the room he smiled when he realized it was Belle sitting near him, with Rumpel standing a foot or two behind her.

"Hey Cyrus," Belle softly said, squeezing his shoulder reassuringly when she realized he was finally waking up. She knew it was normally Rumpel who dealt with the nightmares, but as she was awake she didn't see the harm in being there. It wasn't like Cyrus was upset; he just seemed relieved someone had come along to wake him. "It has been awhile since you had a nightmare."

He nodded at that observation; it had been a few weeks. At first he thought he'd misplaced the charm Rumpel had given him, but when he reached up to see if that was the case, he discovered it was still hanging around his neck on the thick cord it was secured to. That puzzled him, he knew some magic could fade over time, but the item had been enchanted not that long ago. Not to mention he was fairly certain Rumpel's magic was quite strong, he'd experienced it himself not that long ago thanks to Jafar. Even if the magic that Rumpel held was only a fraction of what was in him it shouldn't have worn off this quickly.

That thought was also going through Rumpel's mind as well, he'd never seen anything he'd woven a spell upon wear off, and if it had that was his intention. When he'd created that charm he had been rather focused on making sure the spell would last, as he'd been unsure it would even work given Cyrus was magical to start with. He supposed there was a first time for everything, not that he'd admit a failure to anyone, but it bothered him a bit that something he'd created with good intentions just so happened to be the first failure he was aware of.

"Here, give me that charm and I'll see if maybe the magic wasn't as strong as I thought it was," he said, as Cyrus removed it and gave it over.

Belle smiled as she ran her hand up and down Cyrus' right arm in a comforting way, she could see he was quite shaken up by the nightmare he'd just woken from. She could tell it was bothering him by the way his eyes kept darting about, as if he expected something to walk out of the darker corners of the room the lamplight did not reach.

"Did you want to talk about it?" she inquired, just as the bedroom door was pushed open.

Cyrus jumped slightly, convincing Belle even more whatever his dream was had to have been rather terrifying, but relaxed when Alice appeared behind Rumpel who was still working some magic over the charm in his hands.

So far as Cyrus was concerned, Alice looked like some celestial being from a dream after what he'd just seen in his mind. It didn't matter her hair was a slightly tangled mess, she had a bit of lip gloss smudged on her lips as she'd forgotten to remove it before bed and her housecoat looked as though it had been put on in a hurry considering it was inside out. To anyone else she might look a little dishevelled and quite a mess, but to him she was the most beautiful person he'd ever laid eyes on.

She smiled when she saw Cyrus, and quickly went over to the bed and crawled up beside him, wrapping her arms around him as she rested her head on his shoulder, but not before kissing him lightly on the cheek first. "I had a feeling you were having a nightmare," she told him.

Realizing she wasn't exactly needed now that Alice had arrived, Belle stood up and made to move towards Rumpel. As she walked away she felt someone grab her wrist, she looked down to realize it was Cyrus. "Thank you for waking me," he said, smiling at her.

"You're welcome," she answered. "We couldn't just leave you to whatever was bothering you."

Rumpel glanced up from what he was doing, completely at a loss. There was nothing wrong with the magic on the charm, and no reason for Cyrus to be having a nightmare. The spell was still intact, the only explanation he could find was maybe the genie's own wish granting magic had somehow overridden the spell but even that made no sense. He still did not understand genie magic, or the point to having magic that was solely for the service of others, but it should not have had any effect on what he'd done with the charm.

But that wasn't all that was baffling him. He looked towards the couple sitting on the bed, confusion written clearly on his face. "How did you know he was having a nightmare, dearie? He hardly made a sound," he inquired, moving his hand again in a slight way over the charm. He still couldn't figure out why it wasn't working, but he'd give it an extra dose of magic for good measure.

Alice grinned brightly as she cuddled closer to Cyrus. "Our hearts are entwined, I don't always know how he is feeling but tonight I woke up with an awful sense of foreboding and knew he was having a nightmare."

"But he didn't realize you were sick last week," Belle pointed out; not exactly sure she understood this. Magic really wasn't her forte, and likely never would be.

"It is more an emotional connection; we can sense extreme differences in the other's emotional state. As long as we're not separated by a great deal of distance that is," Cyrus explained, pulling Alice a little closer to him, if it was at all possible.

Rumple chuckled. "Well then, I guess you know to stay away from her when she's angry, if it is extreme emotions."

Alice laughed at that, her emotions did seem to fluctuate a lot, unlike Cyrus who always had a sense of calm about him. That was the only reason she'd woken up, it wasn't often she would notice any sort of fear coming from him. When she'd returned to Wonderland to find him she hadn't felt anything much, due to the distance, not until her and Will had finally found their way into Jafar's lair.

She didn't even need to see Cyrus to know he was exhausted, which was causing a great deal of fear in him; she had felt it moments after they'd managed to find some hidden passages. The knowledge they couldn't have overthrown Jafar and the Red Queen was part of the reason she'd used her first wish, but it was more based on a response to the fear she'd sensed. She had never felt such a strong sense of terror from him before, despite all the dangers they'd gone through during their adventures, it was nothing like in that moment.

"I'm sorry to have woken you all," Cyrus apologized, but was instantly hushed by Rumpel with a slight wave of his hand.

"No need to apologize, you can't do anything about these nightmares when they do manage to find you. We have all had them at some point in our lives, to various intensities. At least you were woken before this one took too strong a hold on you. I would have hated to have seen you toss Belle across the room like you did me that one time," Rumpel interjected, laughing slightly at the memory of that night.

Cyrus blushed, ducking his head a bit in his usual way just as Neal walked by the room with a glass in hand. He stopped, and walked in with a curious look in his eyes. "I didn't know we were having a slumber party," he teased, a smile coming over his face when he saw Alice and Cyrus together on the bed.

"Kindly remove your mind from the gutter, after that talk we had awhile ago I think you know there is nothing lewd going on around here," Rumpel admonished, easily reading his son's mind. Growing up in this realm had done Bae no favours, so far as he was concerned.

Neal raised his free hand in defeat, shaking his head slightly. "Hey, I know that. Just a bit surprised to find everyone in here is all, what is going on?"

"Cyrus was having a nightmare," Alice told him, just as a yawn escaped her.

"What about?" Neal asked, looking towards the person in question.

Cyrus really didn't want to answer that, as it didn't feel so much as a nightmare as a premonition of events yet to come. Once in awhile he would have dreams or nightmares; however they decided to play out, which almost always were of something to happen in the future. He had no idea if that was something to do with being a genie or just a part of his heritage from his long forgotten father. He knew Rumpel could see the future, but that ability came from another source. He reasoned if it was from the dark magic then his father should have known what was coming and been able to save him from being turned into a genie in the first place, so he fancied maybe it was just something that came with what he now was.

"It was just a nightmare of Jafar, simply memories coming back to haunt me," he admitted, feeling Alice's arms tighten a bit around him. He gave her a quick kiss on the top of her head, to reassure her it was nothing to worry about.

He was lying, and he hoped no one caught on. He wasn't sure what he'd seen, but he could distinctly remember a woman with blonde hair, splashes of crimson and finally Jafar's cold eyes. That was the reason he had for believing it wasn't so much a nightmare as a possible hint at something to come in the future.

There was also his knowledge that wishes were tricky things, just because Jafar was gone for now did not mean he would stay that way. There was always a string attached to every wish, and if the sorcerer could find it he would exploit it in an effort to find his way back to this realm.

With a soft sigh he pushed those thoughts from his mind; there was no sense in letting fears of what could come in the future poison the present. Whenever those images became a reality he would deal with them, and hopefully he'd have his friends and newfound family to help.

One glance at Rumpel and he knew the man was well aware he'd lied, even though everyone else bought what he'd said. The look in his brown eyes told Cyrus they were going to discuss what exactly he'd seen in his sleeping mind, in private and soon. But for now, Rumpel was going to let it slide.

"Well then, I suppose we should all be on our way back to our own beds and some sleep. Will, Regina and Jefferson are coming over tomorrow to discuss this new adventure we're all partaking in and we'll all need to be well rested for that," Rumpel stated as he handed the charm back to Cyrus.

The genie took it gratefully, as Alice started to snuggle down into his bed. He looked at her oddly, wondering what exactly she was doing. "Don't look at me like that, if that charm won't keep the nightmares away then you need another one," she grinned, a bright twinkle in her eyes.

Neal groaned, sometimes Alice and Cyrus were a little too much to take for him, but obviously that didn't apply to everyone as proven when Rumpel laughed. "Well, I'll admit she worked wonders on Christmas Eve so I see no issue with this. But please, don't stay up all night talking, dearies."

Cyrus promised they wouldn't, which wasn't hard to agree to as he was tired and would likely be asleep a few minutes after they left the room. As to Alice, she may well stay awake for a long time yet just daydreaming, as she had a habit of doing.

Alice grinned and grabbed the quilt at the end of the bed. "I always liked slumber parties when I was little, almost as much as tea parties," she admitted, as Cyrus impressed upon her she was not staying up all night talking. "Oh I know that! But I do like the idea of cuddling up to you at night like we used to in Wonderland."

Belle walked over, and in her motherly way gave them both a light kiss on the forehead before following Rumpel and Neal out of the room. Once the door to the room was closed Neal looked at his father strangely. "Why don't you allow me to have a sleepover with Emma?"

Belle clapped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from bursting out in laughter at the question. She wasn't absolutely certain if he was being serious or meant that in jest, but she was pretty sure it was the latter.

Rumpel looked at his son with a slightly exasperated glare. Why were children so difficult, no matter their age? "I can trust those two, as we discussed before the type of love they share is on a level different from the one that you and Emma enjoy. It doesn't make it any less a deep and strong love, but they express it in a way that differs from you two."

"Nothing wrong with what Emma and I do with our alone time, or how we express our love for one another you know," Neal quipped as they walked down the hall towards the other bedrooms.

Rumpel smiled; no, there was nothing wrong with that. Not every relationship that was based on love required it, but he knew that was the type of love his son shared with the Charming's daughter. "I'm not saying there is, but I am saying I don't want another grandchild at this particular juncture in time."

At that Belle did burst out in laughter and Neal stopped dead in his tracks. That was rather blunt and to the point. "Fair enough," he stuttered, a bit surprised at his father admission.

"Good, now that we're agreed on that how about we all do as I imagine Alice and Cyrus are already doing and get some sleep. There is a lot to discuss before any of us leave for Wonderland or the Enchanted Forest, and I imagine there will be more arguing than discussing with the group we have coming," Rumpel asserted as he turned into his bedroom.

Belle grinned as Neal went to his own room, she hadn't been certain at first if she'd be asked to go on this adventure, but then Alice had asked if she would go to Wonderland with her to find the Red Queen. If it had been the Enchanted Forest she likely would have turned it down, not longing to see what ruin had come over her home realm with the dark curse, but Wonderland did interest her. Alice's tales were intriguing; she wanted to see the place for herself.

It was time to get her nose out of her books and go find a real adventure again, and she was looking forward to it immensely.


End file.
